Badminton Olympics: The Most Prestigious Badminton Tournament in the World

The Olympics Games’ badminton event, or “Badminton Olympics” is the world’s most prestigious
badminton tournament.

Players don’t play for the prize money or ranking points. Winning the Olympics is more about recognition and pride.

A player who wins the Badminton Olympics is given the most credit and recognition in the world of badminton.

The Olympic Games gold medal is so treasured by badminton players
because it is recognised by anyone in the world, not only the badminton
world. To add to that, it’s only held once every 4 years.

Badminton was only included as an Olympic sports event in 1992. That
means up to this date, there is only a short list of badminton Olympic
champions.

Badminton Olympics Determines a “True Champion”

Each season of the Olympic Games offers 5 gold medals to the 5 disciplines in badminton (MS, MD, WS, WD and XD).

The winners of the men’s singles event usually receive the most recognition.

In order to become a “true badminton champion”, a player must obtain
the Olympic Games gold medal at least once in their career, earning the
title “Olympic Champion”.

Opportunities to Play in the Badminton Olympics

Each player usually will have about 2 chances, at most 3, in their entire career to fight for a gold medal.

This is because the sport is so demanding and played at such high intensity that players are forced to retire at around 30.

Each player will only have about 10 years (usually 20-30 years old) to win the Olympic gold medal.

Due to this limited once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, every player will be fighting their hearts out for the gold medal.

Badminton Olympics vs the BWF Badminton World Championships

In badminton, when people refer to “world champions” they refer to the winners of the annual BWF Badminton World Championships.

Unlike the Olympics, players can have a shot at the world champion’s title almost every year.

This makes the competition during the Olympic Games gold medal much more valuable than the World Championships.

Only the best of the best have a chance to even play in the Badminton Olympics.

How Players Qualify for Badminton Olympics

The badminton Olympics event has strict qualification rules. The
rules are somewhat complicated and might be difficult to understand.

The idea is each nation/country can only send 9 men and 9 women
players to represent their country in the 5 badminton categories.

This means that for each category in the sport, there will be 2 representative players/pairs for each nation.

To help me explain in simple terms, it’s like this:

Men’s Singles: 2 players
Men’s Doubles: 4 players (2 doubles pairs)
Women’s Singles: 2 players
Women’s Doubles: 4 players (2 doubles pairs)
Mixed Doubles: 2 male and 2 female (2 mixed doubles pairs)

Total: 9 men and 9 women

With such limited spots, every professional player will have to fight to qualify for a spot to represent their country.

How do they qualify?

• Each nation will select their representatives approximately 3 months before the Olympic Games.
• The national players with the highest BWF rank in the country will be sent to compete in the Olympics.
• A country is eligible to send more than 2 players/pairs in a category if all their players are at the top of the BWF rank.

The qualification system for the Olympics is much more complicated than this.

Click here if you’re interested to know more.

Recent Men’s Singles Olympic champions

If you have watched the most recent matches, you would have witnessed
how talented the Olympic champions were. Their shots and skills are
just a beauty to watch.

2008 Beijing and 2012 London Olympic Games Champion: Lin Dan of China

Lin Dan was one of the young talents who rose to stardom in the early
20th century. He was a major threat to the top ranked players at that
time, even at a tender age. He demonstrated some extraordinary skills in
his games.

2008 represented the peak of the career when he grabbed the FIRST Beijing Olympic Gold medal on Chinese home ground.

Lin Dan was still in great form in 2012, which enabled him to be crowned as a 2 time Olympic champion.

Lin Dan is so far the only man to hold 2 Olympic Games Men’s Singles title!

2004 Athens Olympic Games Champion: Taufik Hidayat of Indonesia

The Indonesian started his career at a very young age.

He made it to the All-England Badminton Championships final at the age of 17!

He had a shot at the 2000 Olympic Games but did not manage to win the gold medal.

In 2004, he secured his first Olympic Games gold medal after he defeated Shon Sheung Mo of South Korea.

Taufik is the ONLY badminton player in history to every produce his famous powerful backhand shots.

He holds the record for the fastest backhand smash in the world and
also holds the record for the fastest forehand smash in a badminton
singles competition.

Some backhand shots were absolutely unbelievable, possibly impossible for other players to replicate.

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